


Spirits Touched, Fortune Cursed.

by CrimsonLyingLilly



Series: Spirits Touched [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Episode: s01e19-20 The Siege of the North, Gen, Spirits, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-09-18
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:20:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26166286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrimsonLyingLilly/pseuds/CrimsonLyingLilly
Summary: Zhao’s attack harms more than just the moon.Tui dies, La is injured. Unlike Tui, La doesn’t have a chosen thankfully a child of Raava’s blood is close by.Zuko's luck once again turns on him and he find himself used to save the Ocean spirit, but that isn’t the end.Excerpt;All it takes is a second. One moment the pair are reunited; then Tui is dead while La flounders fading next to them from the burn, their mortal bodies fragile and with Tui already gone the water bender was powerless.
Series: Spirits Touched [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1900153
Comments: 138
Kudos: 397





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First fanfiction I've put on here, (also the first fic i ever put on tumblr) so if you think my Tags are missing anything please tell me. anyway hope you enjoy.

All it takes is a second. One moment the pair are reunited; then Tui is dead while La flounders fading next to them from the burns, their mortal bodies fragile and with Tui already gone the water bender was powerless.

Tui had been prepared for this, La hadn’t. So Agni acts, his sibling’s deaths would destroy any chance the world had to survive, leaving his plans and hopes for his own humans pointless.

He gives up his chosen mortal. Raava’s blood tie as well as his own long distance one makes the boy better suited than any of the others. So he whispers to the boy, pulls the child from his desired chase and lures him to the pool.

The future he had planned crashes, the boy’s destiny torn to shreds.

(Agni’s plans for his humans recovery, their new era of peace crumble but aren’t lost completely lost yet. An uncle or niece could still be swayed, maybe the loss of this human could be useful. It doesn’t remove the bitterness.)

Tui’s blessed one understands at least as she sees the glazed look in the boy’s eyes and takes his hand and leads him the last few steps to La’s injured body. She lets go a moment later, to lay her own hand on Tui’s still mortal form.

The boy’s uncle is able to do anything with his hands holding Tui body, but his eyes widened as he see his nephew lean forward, eyes locked of the black Koi, Agni feels his inner flame freeze at the slow acknowledgment.

The Princess of Ice pushes her life back to the one that gave it to her and dies with a sigh.

The Prince of Fire is pulled from life with a cry.

*

Zuko had slipped off the Avatar bison just in time to see Zhao flee and was about to chase after him when he was distracted.

It’s a buzzing in in his head that makes him stop, he thinks to blame it on the cold and no doubt extra head trauma from fighting the water bender. He had known he had no chance but surrendering had never worked out any better in the past with his family, his own people, why would it with his enemy.

His body aches as it has been since he dragged himself from the water after his ship blew up and the want to lay down and sleep, even if he just woke up, reinserts itself but he can’t- yet, he just needs- he was going t- the buzzing grows until he realises it’s just words he can’t make out.

He needs to take a breath then he can go after Zhao, he finds himself walking closer to the group, it makes sense Uncle’s there, they aren’t enemies at the moment, Zhao’s their shared- wait he, Zhao’s got to be getting away-

He loses the thought as a hand suddenly holds his, he can’t help but note the lack of gloves lending him heat and the softness meaning their untrained, not a threat. He finds himself relaxing into the touch.

Zuko doesn’t know the gentle hand in leading him to his death until it leads him to the Oasis and his eyes catch sight of the dying black koi, he finds himself reaching for it, wants to help but the moment he touches the water and Agni’s whispers fade, their meaning becomes clear.

 _Sorry_ it says and Zuko realises what for. Another voice replaces it

 _Mine now_.

He twist, unable to pull himself from the water, looking at the others, any of them for help.

“Uncle!” he meets uncle’s eyes, Uncle looks horrified and Zuko is relived for a moment ‘Uncle knows, he can help’ he thinks.

The white hair princess seems to glow as she touches the white Koi and the water tribe boy is looking at her, the waterbender is close enough she could reach him but she doesn’t. She and the Avatar just look confused at him.

“Plea-“ the rest to choked off by water as he is pulled down into the Oasis.

(Later he will seethe that his last word was a plea when he knows-knew, that never worked)

Water replaces his world.

It’s cold, and get colder as he feels his inner flame pulled out, from the sudden emptiness numbness spreads though him, making the polar waters feel warm.

*

Katara hadn’t noticed him until he stood next to her, too focused to try to heal the ocean spirit as it struggled. She had tuned out the conversation behind her and had forgotten the Prince they had left in Appa’s saddle.

She turned and had been about to threaten him when she felt him behind her, after all hadn’t his kind done enough, but her words had frozen in her throat when she notice his eyes, glazed over and fixed on the Ocean Spirit, she hadn’t be able to move even as Yue had reached over her to pull the prince towards the oasis with her hand.

_Mine now_

She heard it as the prince’s hand touches the water, as he snapped out of the trance. The voice was as familiar as the waves she had grown up with, her element speaking to her and as the prince of its opposite looks at her she knew he heard it too.

But she doesn’t understand why.

(Yet)

He looks at them all free of the trance, his eyes wide with fear, flickering between each of them, he looks at them for help, even as the injured-dying Koi brushes against his hand and they start to glow.

She thinks there may be many things that haunt her from that night for the rest of his life. But other than he big brother shaking as cried in her arms; it’s not Yue's sad smile as she says goodbye or the fire nation general’s scream as Zuko vanishes into the water, that haunt her nightmares.

“Uncle!“

Its Zuko cry, just before he vanishes into the water and out of their sight, the almost hope in it. More child than man. She had the sudden realization that Zuko wasn’t much older than them, he wasn’t the man that took her mum from her, he was just another kid caught up in the war of their grandparents.

It's was the pitch of a scared child calling for help.

It’s also the understanding in his eyes, like he knew what was about to happening before any of them.

“Plea-“ his cry was cut off as he was pulled down vanishing into the depths as they stood and watched.

(Later when she learns of how he got the scar, she wonders if that all people ever did for Zuko. Why had no one tried to help him)

Everything moves too fast after that; Yue falls into Sokka’s arms, then she fades away and the moon spirit glows. The spirit is put back in the pool back and she sighs in relief when it starts to swim next to the suddenly healing ocean.

Aang startles her when he leaps over the pool to tackle the old man and for a second she thinks he’s about to attack them, until she sees the way he reaches for the pool and look on his face. Like his whole world is gone and she remembers that feeling with mum, in Aang’s hold he drops to the ground.

Yue appears above the pool to say goodbye to Sokka and once she leaves again, Katara feels the moon return, the same way she felt the Ocean gaining their strength back. She moves to sit beside Sokka and focuses of holding him as he cries.

She tries to ignore the grieving man as he begs the spirits to give his son back and take him instead.

She can’t see them as enemies anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your comments and Kudos on last chapter, they really helped motivate in writing for part two of the series.  
> oh just in case it wasn't clear last chapter La is female and Tui is male in this fic.
> 
> Warning for Body horror and description of drowning.

La takes Agni blessing from the boy before she drags him completely under and uses it to remove the heat from her burn, his struggles slow as his body starts to freeze from the inside without the inner flame Agni’s humans were so proud of.

Her mortal self swims alone, as she pulls at him.

(her other half, husband, love gone, even before the mortals had taken his mortal body)

This child, she notes, was one she has almost taken several times before, perhaps they were warnings, if so neither of them had taken notice. Saved from her by his father as a child and yet banished to her by the same man, the small metal ship that had become scrap weeks earlier had been his only protection from her reach.

Agni had offered him to her, Tui’s child brought him to her, so she takes what she needs and unlike Tui and the child he had prepared, she isn’t gone so she only needs pieces of him.

Still the boy fights, slower and weaker it may be, even with his flame stolen, he fights a fight he can never win, one already lost.

After the flame she moves onto his physical body, which she needed to repair hers. The fabric of his clothes is worn away as she takes from the flesh beneath, it dissolves and fades into the water surrounding it. That however causes the boy’s desperate attempts to reach to surface to reignite, she questions why, surly he must realizes by now there will be nothing for him to return to.

Never give up without a fight.

The words across her mind, straight from his, she wonders why they are so important.

Later she promises herself, she will look more into the child then when her life isn’t fading.

*

Zuko’s drowning, not the first time he thinks but it feels different this time.

He ignores the part of him that says because this time is final.

He’s running out of time.

He was on the surface just a moment ago but now he seems too far down, it’s dark around him with the light just being a small hole above him, too far above him.

The burning of his lungs was almost enough to take his mind from the absence of his inner flame, stolen from him the moment he was pulled into the water. The fact he knows the water around him is freezing doesn’t change that at this moment it feels warm and soothing.

His chest burns and while he wants to go home, but he would give that up if he could just breathe again, a single breath of air anything to stop the burning, aching in his chest.

He almost allows himself to give in, when he sees it.

The torn cloth from his sleeve that doesn’t make sense when the water isn’t rough enough to tear.

His hand from where it weakly flails in the water in front of his face looks wrong.

The skin and the flesh beneath dissolves and vanishes while his blood appears to glow for a second before it as well disappears, into the water and he doesn’t feels any of it.

He should be relived at the absent of pain but that just grows the horror within, he can see his bones thought the thin, and growing thinner, flesh. The sight reminds him, forcing him into struggling harder, pushing himself more he just needs to reach the surface, the light.

‘Never give up without a fight’ uncle’s dagger, Uncle will save him, he would. Zuko promises to apologizes and hug him back this time, he swears.

That thought hurts more than his body, the pain in his heart almost eclipsing his lungs.

He wants warm days by the pond with mother and even Azula. He’d even take father’s eyes, his disappointed stare if he could feel warm again, if he could breathe.

Most of all he wants Uncle, his warm arms and he wishes he never left the ship.

He wants his ship with his crew and music nights. Years of nothing but false leads, ghost chases before the avatar but he would take them back in a second to be free of here.

He’s disturbed to see his finger bones fall away as he continues to reach for the light it doesn’t seem any closer, a small distant part of him, the only part not screaming in panic and fear wonders if he should be relieved that at least something of him remains or insulted at leaving his bones behind.

As he feels more of him fade away, nothingness spreading on his outside to match the growing numbness from where his inner flame should be and pushes himself more, just a little bit more, just one more breath of air.

He doesn’t feel the tears leave his eyes but he knows they’re there.

He doesn’t want to die.

(But when does he ever get what he wants.)

*

She doesn’t need all of him but by the time she has taken what she does, what remains cannot be returned. Bones sink though the water, a last breath bubbles to the surface, no one notices it and the soul, now without a body, shivers in her grasp, tiny delicate and fragile next to her vast being.

Tui mortal self is returned to their pool, his light returns to the sky as his child starts to wakes to her new life.

*

Zuko not drowning anymore, well he is but his lungs don’t burn and he doesn’t need to breath.

He doesn’t understand what’s going on but thinks it might have something to do with the fact he doesn’t have lungs or a body anymore, he’s struggling to figure out how he is still here and thinking after he had watched his bones sink away from him.

He feels like he’s drifting apart and tries to pull himself together, remind himself of who he is.

How can he still see at all when he had watched his skull settle onto the floor?

He can’t see the light anymore, but it’s not all blackness.

How can he feel the entire ocean with a sense not anything like what he had felt before, how he could feel the fire nation ships outside the northern fortress, he could feel the coasts of earth kingdom, the fire nation islands.

Home

He can see-feel his ship, wreaked and scattered along the shoreline bed.

He can almost reach Caldera.

He's washing along the Beach of Ember Island.

He feels himself drifting apart and he can’t figure out why that’s a bad thing when he feels something far greater than he can see-sense-feel grasp him, pulling him in and wrapping around him, he struggles.

He can’t remember why anymore but he does.

*

She has a choice she could release it allow it to move on or –

Those words from before return, along with other others escaping as the boy’s soul struggles.

You will learn respect and suffering will be your teacher. A man’s voice that inspires terror and want.

Zuzu! A girl’s voice that bring longing, anger and confusion.

Confusing, conflicting feelings, were all humans so contradictory?

Never forget who you are. A woman’s voice, safety, calm days by a pond. Loss. Where did she go?

I think of you as my own- older man’s voice soft, accompanies by warm arms and tea. She knows this one, he weeps above them.

She wants to learn more about this being, this one who saved her. Even if he wouldn’t have, given the choice, maybe he would have, they could never tell now.

Tui had always called her reckless, others call her unpredictable, and so she lives up to it and chooses not to release it. Instead she pulls it in wrapping herself around it, it still struggles against her, amusing her as it does.

She looks into what makes it, the stubborn refusal to give up, was that why Agni had chosen this one. Its kind and gentle core, hidden though there are, at its centre making him far more like Tui than herself, La had rarely been called kind or gentle.

Tui’s light returns to the sky and La feels their warmth like a hole refilled within her. They are not the same, Tui was weaker but he had chosen and loved Yue and La would love any part of her other half. The soul relaxes and finally stops struggling at La’s feeling of her love for Tui, she reaches to find his own loves.

His love for his people matches hers for Tui. Mortals seem to have such large hearts for such little short lived creatures she muses all his love and concern for them shouldn’t have fit in the tiny form.

La physical mortal form is smaller but she exists within all the oceans, and her true love only belongs to Tui, although she has a fondness for their people-children and does care for her fellow great spirits, their brother Agni amongst within them. The human only had his flesh to protect his soul and even that was only half grown, yet it held a love for all its people.

Besides that love runs an thread of anger, for one she knows. For the one that led his people astray one that hurt them and stole from them.

They shared that rage.

He that Stole Tui, harmed her and killed Tui, taking her other half. 

He that stole his people, harmed him and his actions had led to his death.

La remembers-saw what the prince had planned to do before Agni’s whispers distracted him. She shifts leaving the Oasis. Her water shapes itself around their mortal form changing it as she swims though the water ways, the soul brushes up against her surface at the familiar form but he doesn’t break try to break free of her.

She allows the boy to take control of the form, it smiles. She’ll follow the boy’s lead, it had been a while since she had a form like this and her boy moves like a hunter.

As the princess says her goodbye, the blue spirit hunts. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for your comments and Kudos, you guys are the best.  
> This took me struggle to write because Zhao was a pain to get in the head of.  
> also my attempt at writing action.

Zhao runs, fleeing the oasis and the dragon he left behind, La muses that he might have made it out of the city if he hadn’t noticed the moon’s reflection in the water and turned to look back, cursing.

(Not that it mattered, he couldn’t escape from the ocean, not here.)

As he does, he fails to see their new form rise from the water to stand on the bridge, at his back. Her mortal form stays swimming deep under the bridge, safe, and the water construct shifts, ice and water moving to reflect Tui light to form a illusion of a living being, one identical to the prince when she had pulled him in.

It is odd to have a second mind two, a sets of thoughts but she adjusts as does the child. It seems surprisingly wilful but adaptive when given something to focus on, was this due to its time banished on her or maybe why Agni had planned for it to-

That mattered little now.

(She would have to teach him to hold himself together and resist the call to spread out and drift away with the tides.)

There is a slight resistance, a flinch away from her as her mind brushes closer to his before she pulls back to leave him in control of their movement.

The Prince opens their eyes, rolls his shoulders and steadies his feet. Gold eyes glared at the admiral, as he turn back to see him, like sunlight reflected off the ocean tides.

*

The moon couldn’t be back, after everything he had done, there was no way. He must be seeing things, Zhao swears as he turn back around to see the banished prince standing in his way, dressed in winter gear.

At least Zuko had the decently to look like he had blown up weeks before.

Zhao would have to find those pirates again to get his money back. They were paid to kill the prince but somehow they had failed at that, as the little pain was standing there once again in his way, almost glowing in the moonlight.

“You’re alive” he sneered to cover his surprise, he shouldn’t have been, if there was anything the boy was good for it was failing to do the what expected of him or wanted of him, in this case die. Bruised, burned and battered, the little brat still managed to get on his nerves.

“You tried to kill me” The banish prince snapped.

“Yes I did.” He admitted, “You’re the blue spirit an enemy of the fire nation you freed the avatar.”

“I had no choice” the boy attempted to excused himself as he shifted into a stance. He didn’t bother to hide his smirk the boy was clearly injured from his escape and tired if the slight swaying was any sign, putting him in his place would be easy.

“You should have chosen to accept your failure, your disgrace, then at least you could have lived” he snarled as he threw fire at the boy.

Instead of firing back the boy side stepped the blasts, twisting around them, Zhao noted steam as one blast got close enough to heat the water from the boy’s clothes.

He stumbles back several steps when two water whips strike toward him, he looks around for the water bender only to have his eyes drawn back to the boy. The ice on either side of the banished prince had melted and reformed as water, following every move the boy made. Instead of looking confused the boy smirks at him.

(For a moment the prince’s eyes are a dark blue, Zhao ignores it.)

Zhao hesitates for a moment as Zuko strikes out, watching as instead of a blast of fire that should have followed, the water whipped toward. He threw a wall of flame to block them.

He’s fought water benders before, those that have trained for years, he’s read scrolls of their forms and lost teachings, the prince new at this element stands no chance.

He debates on whether he should aim to capture him, no matter how poor a bender Zuko was he was born a fire bender, changing or gaining an element was unheard of other that the beginning of the Avatar.

But the boy’s expression as one of his water whips breaks through Zhao’s defense making him stumble back reminds him of the Agni Kai and Zhao decision is clear.

A water bending prince of Agni’s line, unacceptable.

He wasn’t going to let that little failure beat him again and this time his uncle wasn’t here to protect him. He would enjoy looking down at the fear in the prince’s eyes before he kills him.

(He would drag it out enough to remember the tears he’ll make him shed first.)

The Fire lord would reward him for clearing out this embarrassment before he could do anymore damage. Zhao would do it personally this time, it would be a joy to make sure the boy knew his place before he died. He would relish the look on Zuko’s face as he falls and make use of him by dragging the boy corpse back to the oasis to use as a distraction.

The dragon of the west’s pathetic attachment to the boy was a clear weakness and he was the only one back there a risk, getting him out the way would make it easy to finish the job and remove the moon spirit.

He was Zhao the moon slayer, after all nothing could stop him. It was his destiny.

*

Zuko moves and the water follows, it’s not waterbending not really but the water is her and he is also her.

It’s an odd mix of Firebending forms, sword moves without the blades and something _other_ , he feels the water move as if it’s a part of him a new limb but more, he can feel the water that hits Zhao's flames, feel it turn to steam. It feels natural for him for all the newness and all the fear-horror-grief fade replaced with joy. He couldn’t lose.

Was this how Azula felt during their spars?

(Was this how father felt during the Agni Kai)

La feels excitement, an odd mortal kind that seems to spread from the child to her; sharper than her own emotions and feelings and yet instead of waving it away and she takes it and experiences it.

He will fall. Her love’s murderer, the one that made her suffer, she will take him never to see Agni’s light, he will sufferer for an eternity for his crimes. She can almost taste his fear already before she has him in her grasp, she won’t kill him that would be over to quick.

The fog of Souls can hold him for eternity, she will visit and even as she swims with Tui in their mortal forms, he will suffer for her taste of mortality and loss of her Tui.

As the once prince sees her plans he pulls back, he attempts to stop it to change her mind, his empathy and compassion rebellion against her vengeance and even his own anger fades under his compassion.

It wouldn’t take much for her to sweep those emotions away and allow his anger to reappear but she disliked that idea. What was the point of him if she was to change him every time he disagreed with her, she would teach him.

So she offers him a test, she had noticed his moves during the fight had been blocks and disarms, no killing strikes. If they weren’t one, she may have believed it was due to his unfamiliarity with her element that caused this but a boy raised to control flame as a weapon, one that had mastered the sword would have little trouble fashioning ice into blades so he had _chosen_ not to.

Zhao would have seen this, a man of his experience and age, he would know the boy had not been a threat to his life in this fight, so she offered a chance, Zhao may live if he could resisted killing the child.

The child only disagreement is with being called a child but accepts that as well as she reminds it of her long existence.

(La knows the mortal will fail before she offers her terms, one who would strike down the moon dooming his own people, a man driven by ego and self-importance would never pull his strike, just as she had known the boy would accept because even with his past experience, the boy still believed in the best of his people, in their honour.)

She moves to control the form with him, she notes that unlike before, instead of flinching or fighting against her sudden crushing presents he relaxes and adapts to move with her.

Their shared form drops its block, opening their arms and allowing a clear path to where their heart should be. They ensure Zhao has time to pull back or redirect his attack as the boy takes them a step backward and offers the man a hand. Instead of taking it, Zhao grins at the perceived weakness and throw his fist and a wave of flame straight into their chest.

La wins, the mortal seals his own fate and her boy accepts with a snarl of rage that suits them.

Zhao’s flames hiss as they hit his chest, water evaporating as it extinguish the flames but it reforms as they learn forward, Zhao’s arms sinking further into their form.

Zhao's eyes widen as the prince’s form ripples, not noticing the once steam returned to water to crawling up his captured arm.

“What?” he asks, his attempts to pull his hand back fail as the water tendrils twist further up his arm.

Prince Zuko smiles it looks more like a snarl.

“You did get me killed, Zhao.” La’s voice creeps in to over lay and the continue “Doesn’t mean it’s over.”

Zhao strikes out with his free hand burning hotter, Zuko raises a hand to block catching it by the wrist, water spreads up to cover his hand smoothing the flame.

Gold eyes flicker to deep blue then back as they pin him.

“Come with us” they hiss, voices overlap, and the water around Zhao’s hands freezes to ice and they interrupt his swear of pain by taking a step back onto the edge of the walkway dragging their prey with them. His eyes are wide as he takes them in and notices the fall into the water below that they are leading him to.

La reaches upwards toward their temporary form, in Zhao's eyes it reflects as a open maw waiting to consume them.

Zuko steps back over the edge taking them both down, instead of a moment of emptiness or shock at the cold he feels almost at home as he hits the water.

Even as the water swallows him, Zhao refuses to scream and Zuko is angered at that, the feeling of victory fading but La hushes him with promises they would get what they want, that they had all the time for that later.

(Admiral Zhao vanishes from the mortal world unseen, it was only fair, the prince’s final mortal moment had been unseen as well.)

They could visit the Fog of souls whenever they wanted, and La thinks the mortal may have interesting idea on how to punish the one that took from them. Once his compassion was redirected away, the child’s spite, rage and hatred could almost best hers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again thank you for all your comments, they mean the world to me and are a great help in keeping me on track, Mass effect and one of my original fictions were calling me but knowing you like this called me back.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again thank you all so much for the Comments and Kudos.  
> This chapter is brought to you by Lawless, who currently is sitting on my shoulder as i post this and is living in a cage my room along with a recovering Miri and who woke me by singing loudly at the sun this morning.
> 
> oh also i have a Tumblr if anyone wants to find me there it's [crimsonlyinglilly](%E2%80%9Dcrimsonlyinglilly.tumblr.com%E2%80%9D)

Before they return to the Oasis, they have to deal with the invaders, La wishes to wash them away drag them down and throw them away, Tui’s light shines unjudging of what she wants and offers strength. The boy lashes at the idea, they’re his, he shouts, it wasn’t their fault, he swears, let them go home, he pleads.

(He wants to go home. It echo’s in his mind but is unspoken to her.)

Drowning and Hypothermia are the worst ways a fire bender can go he shares the memory of words spoken once, she wonders if this is experience he speaks from or just of lessons before.

There is no way to redirect his compassion from this cause and little reason too, foolish they were, they had not harmed her Tui and Agni would likely prefer his wayward children return alive perhaps to make up for his lost chosen.

So instead of washing them into her and swallowing them, casting them into the deep, she gently, for her, flows though the canals of the city, swiping them off the ice, pulling them into the waterways and carries them back to their ships. Some she is partially careful with as the boy recognizes them as his in more than the others.

Years of memories on a small ship past her by in a flash.

(She remembers them from a different angle, watching impassively as the travel above, they are different from his view; bright and sharp.)

‘Of course Zhao would send my crew out, no doubt hoping for them to be killed’ his mind hisses and La twists around him enjoying his rage, he seems to have a lot of it

She pushes the ships back, turning them around, the appearance of the boy forms on the deck of each ship speaking, carrying both her voice ordering them to leave.

Several mortal recognizes their form, many don't, they attack, their flames absorbed into the water, some bow or fall to their knees. those handful that do call out the boy’s name, those that she was most careful with.

“Prince Zuko” there is horror, confusion, pain, sadness and grief in their tone.

The boy’s memories name them.

She allows the boy to control their form, to speak or bend it into a bow before she lets it fall. A goodbye.

(Shouts of shock follow as the prince falls apart into water, leaving a puddle on the deck as the rest is drawn back into the ocean)

*

Jee was having a bad day, no, his life had been going from bad to worst since he finally started to see what their banished prince could become. To respect him and hope he would get a chance to see him become fire lord.

Then Zhao had ordered them to follow him, taken them away from their ship and home, that had then been blown up.

The fact this invasion had started with Zhao sending all of those who had served the general and the prince out first, even the non-combatants, like the cook and doc, shouldn’t have been a surprise. Zhao would use throw it in the general’s face after the prince-

Jee wasn’t going to think about that.

They were lucky they were send out together at least they could focus of defending and keeping each other alive, that and spending the last three years on a ship run by a teenage who had nothing better than to train how to fight all the elements had done some good.

But he had at least thought his time following spirit tales was over.

Instead their foolish attempt to attack them north was filled with them, the moon turning red then vanishing then returning should have been the most of it instead it had ended with the water itself coming to life and picking them up. There was no defending from that.

He was sure they were dead until he found himself being dumped onto a metal surface and looked up see it was one of their ships. He clambered to his feet, spitting out the salt water he had inhaled and looked around to check his crew. They were all there in varying states similar to his, all seemed awake spitting or coughing up the water.

It was their wide eyed stares behind him that forced him to look.

He turned around to see the water hadn’t left instead it rose twisting into a human sized shape, he looked around for a water bender, instead catching sight of something similar happening on the ship closest to them.

His attention was pulled back their ship when he heard a woman’s speak.

“Leave. Be thankful for your lives, another paid the price.” It was clear where voice came, Jee didn’t bother to hide the shiver at her voice knowing he wasn’t the only one, he had been a be the navy a while, even before he found himself basically banished.

He like all sailors knew La was merciless. Mercy was of the moon, for Tui to guild you to safety or to calm the waves, The Ocean swallowed those foolish enough to doubt her, her voice was as beautiful, cruel and cold as he had imagined.

He could almost feel sorry for Zhao if he was La’s price.

That pity vanished far too quickly along with Jee’s breath when water seemed to settle into a shape, colours appearing to look like a solid person, a person he recognized.

“Prince Zuko” he wasn’t the only one to recognize the form.

The prince dressed in white winter gear, similar to the ones their crew had almost starved for in their first year back when he was a quieter angry barely teenage fourteen and they were looking for a water tribe Avatar, those clothes they hadn’t had on their ship when it was destroyed.

The clothes appeared frozen, ice forming them into stiff shapes and his phoenix plume was weighted down and dripping but other than that he almost appeared normal.

The eyes were wrong, Jee couldn't help but think as he stepped towards it, he couldn’t help himself now reminded of how small the prince was, even as he looked down at wrong eyes, deep dark blue-green stared back.

Water was the worst way, they had thought for their prince to die. Jee knew the crew had hoped the prince had died in the explosion instead of drowning along with their ship’s wreckage. They had all sat vigil in hopes to help lead him to Agni, if he couldn’t go home they could at least done that for him.

He should have known the prince wouldn’t have let himself die from Zhao, but a spirit taking him, apparently even the prince couldn’t beat that.

Shifting blue-green too dark eyes changed to sunlit gold and the cold distract look changed to something far more human. An expression he had only caught rare glimpses of normally sent to the general.

“Thank you, lieutenant” the prince smiled, it was crooked, small but honest and Jee sucked in a breath at the sudden pain at notice of how much he looked like a kid, how young he was. He was still struggling to get his breathing under control as the figure lent around him to look at the rest of the crew

“Thank you.” It was soft but it carried over the silence of the ship.

Jee had the urge to reach out and grab him, he was only an arm distance maybe if he could get a hold of him, they could save him, bring him back to their side.

(back to music nights and the general's shopping sprees.)

His brief hope was wrenched away as his fingers brushed against the prince's arm and the prince left apart into water, splashing onto the deck.

Drowning was one of the worst ways for a fire bender to go, next to freezing, he stares at his ice coated fingers the same that had brushed the figure, the shouts of his crew behind him quiet as he thinks.

It seemed the prince was doing both to spare the soldiers of a nation that banished him the same. Much like burning in hopes to save green recruits, suffering for his people, he can only hope this time ends better for them than it did the 41st.

No vigil would return their prince to Agni now.

He prays the General doesn’t know.

*

By the time Agni rises, she is returned to the Oasis chasing Tui’s mortal self, while he settles with his new self and her new spirit sleeps within her.

(That’s what he is now, her refusal to release him has bound him to her as a part of her and she prefers it. He interest her, she has much to learn from him and he can still grow and adapt.)

No one pays any mind to the collection of bones sitting at the bottom of the Oasis. Few thinks too much of a missing prince in the morning light.

Other than an heartbroken old man alone on a raft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and that's the end of part one.  
> Aang wasn't possessed, so yay, but that doesn't mean he's free of nightmares.  
> There will be a delay in posting part two as real life really sucked this week and has distracted me from finishing it and given me real life things to do but i will hopefully have it done before end of next month.


End file.
